German Sentence Structure - Subordinate Clauses - Relative Clauses

Relative Clauses

The outer nominal phrase the relative clause relates to can be any nominal phrase in any case. The clause begins with a form of the relative pronoun derived from and largely identical to the definite pronoun (der/die/das), or the interrogative pronoun (welchem/welcher/welches), the remaining words are put after it. Using the interrogative pronoun without good cause is considered typical for legalese language.

Der Mann, der/welcher seiner Frau den Hund schenkt (nominative subject)("The man who gives his wife the dog")

Der Hund, den/welchen der Mann seiner Frau schenkt (accusative object) ("The dog which the man gives his wife")

Die Frau, der/welcher der Mann den Hund schenkt (dative object) ("The woman to whom the man gives the dog")

Der Mann, der/welcher ich bin (predicative noun) ("The man I am")

The outer nominal phrase can also be the possessor of a noun inside. You use the genitive case of a relative pronoun matching the outer nominal phrase in gender and number.

Der Mann, dessen Auto auf der Straße parkt ("The man whose car is parked on the street")

Die Person, deren Auto ich kaufe ("The person whose car I am buying")

Das Auto, dessen Fahrer ich helfe ("The car whose driver I am helping")

Die Kinder, deren Lehrer ich kenne ("The children whose teacher I know")

Prepositions/Postpositions are attached to these phrases in the relative clause if necessary.

Das Haus, in dem ich lebe ("The house I live in")

Die Person, derentwegen ich hier bin ("The person I am here because of")

Das Haus, durch dessen Tür ich gegangen bin ("The house whose door I came in by")

If the relative pronoun is identical to the definite article several identical forms may follow each other.

Der, der der Frau, der ich schon Honig gegeben hatte, Honig gab, muss mehr Honig kaufen ("The man who gave honey to the woman I had already given honey to, has to buy more honey")

Such constructions are generally avoided by using forms of welch- as relative pronouns.

Der, welcher der Frau, welcher ...

or rather

Derjenige, welcher der Frau, der ich ...

Otherwise, welcher is rarely used (never in the genitive), and without a difference in meaning. If the relative pronoun refers to a thing as yet unknown or a whole sentence and not a part of it, was is used instead, always equivalent here to an English "which".

Der Chef stellte einen Arbeiter ein, was diesen sehr gefreut hat. - "The manager hired a worker, which the latter was very happy about."

From sentences such as this

In dem Geschäft, wo ( or in dem) man auch Brot kaufen kann, kaufe ich Bier. - "In this shop where you also can buy bread I am buying beer."

one may understand why colloquial usage extends this to other quasi-locational prepositional expressions

Die Zeit, wo (= in der) wir Rom besucht haben, war sehr schön. - "The time where we visited Rome was really fine."

and then, in Northern German slang, to all relative clauses:

Der Mann, wo bei Siemens arbeitet, hat an der Technischen Universität studiert. "The man where works at Siemens's has graduated from the Technical University."

Southern Germans never use this form, but they have constructed a double form "der wo, die wo, das wo" which is almost necessary in their dialect.